Summer is officially staring us down. Ice cream is one antidote to the hotter days ahead, but it need not be plain vanilla.

Watch as Mackensy Lunsford and John Boyle take the adult milkshake challenge at Pack's Tavern. The restaurant and bar is offering up three varieties of alcoholic milkshakes with ice cream from The Hop. 6/4/14. Robert Bradley

And for those oncoming humid nights, frozen drinks don't have to lean on syrupy mixes. We've found several that are downright sophisticated. Here are some of the most unusual — and most boozy — frozen treats to cure your summertime blues.

THE NAUGHTY

Fly high: Asheville's posh Nightbell lounge offers several classier takes on the frozen drink, and it ups the ante with a shot of science.

To wit: The restaurant's gin-based Aviation Sorbet is a twist on the classic drink of the same name. A splash of violet-scented liqueur, Creme Yvette, as well as Luxardo maraschino liqueur, gives the drink a deceptively demure pink hue, but this is no frilly sipper. The sorbet, quick-frozen with the aid of liquid nitrogen, is uncannily smooth and strong enough for two. "Some people are a little shocked by the booze-forward flavor of it," said bartender Brad McClain. "It looks like it's going to be something very friendly to drink down. They don't expect to bite into almost pure gin." This drink is currently an off-the-menu item, but bartenders will make it upon request.

The Hemingway Daiquiri is the current seasonal option, a grapefruit- and lime-splashed sorbet with Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum that really packs a punch. "We were looking for something user-friendly, but something that's going to let you know that the cocktail is serious also, because we don't want to have it so sweet or fruit-forward that you're gong to go through one and want another and then realize 'Wait, I'm a little over my limit.'"

In about two months, Nightbell will change its name to Nightbell Restaurant and Lounge, according to assistant manager Brandon Schermer. That signals a bigger focus on small-plates dining in the early part of the evening, with the same focus on nightclub mode later in the evening. "We'll have most of the same things we have now, plus we'll expand to more American-style tapas," Schermer said. "It's still going to be upscale, American food, but still tapas-sized." Nightbell is at 32 S. Lexington Ave.

Get dazed

The Dazed and Confused at The King James Public House, the Steve Goff-helmed bar and kitchen on Charlotte Street, is one drink that's out to prove that not all frozen cocktails are created equal.

The bar forgoes the blender, opting instead for a sorbet-based sipper that packs a soothing wallop. King James just opened earlier this year and last month floated into the final round of the recent Bar Wars AVL on the back of this cocktail, the restaurant's take on a classic Daisy. With a grapefruit-tarragon-Limoncello sorbet, a splash of Plymouth gin and a squeeze of fresh lime, the Dazed and Confused is an herbaceous tonic to the hottest of afternoons. King James Pub is at 94 Charlotte St.

Shake it up

There's more than ice cream and milk in the new shakes at Pack's Tavern.

The Krispy Kreme milkshake, for example, has 360 Glazed Doughnut Vodka whipped into the mix as well as Hop Ice Cream Cafe-made Krispy Kreme ice cream, with two dozen doughnuts packed into each 2.5-gallon batch. The ice cream is made exclusively for Pack's Tavern. The Chocolate Salted-Caramel Bourbon shake is whirled with real Maker's Mark Bourbon. And even though the Root Beer Float is made with real, draft root beer, it also has a jigger of Smirnoff Root Beer Vodka tossed in the mix for good measure. There's also a strawberry-Nutella shake, spiked with the hazelnut liqueur Frangelico.

"It's taken off like wildfire," said Pack's Tavern owner Tom Israel. "It's a big hit with the adults." The booze-free versions, also made with Hop ice cream, are doing quite well, too. "It made sense to start selling shakes, given our location by the park," said Israel, noting that Splashville is within splashing distance of the restaurant. "Our floors stay pretty wet on a nice Saturday," he said.

Pack's Tavern is at 20 S. Spruce St. in downtown Asheville.

Pack's isn't the only local restaurant to use the Hop's ice cream in a cold, boozy confection. Farm Burger in downtown Asheville also floats the shop's ice cream in frosty glasses of Green Man Porter, Original Sin cider, or Wells Banana Bread beer.

THE NICE

Get your veggies

The Hop Ice Cream Cafe takes the whole "nice" thing further than most ice cream shops.

The shop, both locations of which are owned by Ashley and Greg Garrison, somehow makes getting your veggies — and now grains — delicious.

Make no mistake, dietitians would still likely frown upon replacing salad with ice cream, even when the ice cream has roasted beets in it. The earthy vegetable that some love to hate is pureed into one of the Garrison's latest creations — golden and red beet swirl. The roasted beets lend the custard base, which tastes like French vanilla, a certain extra sweetness; beets do have plenty of natural sugars, after all.

It's another in a line of produce-based treats for The Hop, the most popular of which remains blueberry-kale, a flavor profiled in the June issue of Saveur Magazine. Ashley has also tested a dark-chocolate ice cream with toasted quinoa in the mix. These are not your grandparents' flavors — but the ingredients could have been culled from their gardens.

"I don't ever want to say that we're marketing healthy ice cream, because it's still ice cream," said Ashley. "But it's definitely things that you would cook with, and things that people who are more health-conscious are more aware of. And they taste good." The Hop is at 640 Merrimon Ave. and 721 Haywood Road.

Ice cream — better with bacon?

Over at Ultimate Ice Cream on Tunnel Road, manager Genevieve Vesely says it's bacon season once again. For four years now, one of Ultimate's more notable out-there flavors has been a brown-sugar-bacon-maple combo. Two years ago, the Food Network was intrigued enough by it to bring a camera crew by the shop.

And we'll still count Ultimate's rum raisin and amaretto chocolate ice creams as "nice" — though they are made with real amaretto and rum. "It won't affect anybody, but it does pack more of a punch than you might expect," said Vesely.

On the healthier side, the company is partnering with Weaverville's Buchi kombucha makers on a series of sorbets made with the company's fermented tea. "They intrigue people," Vesely said. Ultimate also uses blueberries and blackberries from Fairview's Imladris Farms on a summery flavor called black and blue. Ultimate Ice Cream is at 1070 Tunnel Road and 197 Charlotte Street in Asheville.

Taste of sunshine

Sunshine Sammies' Susie Pearson sells her handcrafted ice cream sandwiches from a solar-powered cart at the corner of Lexington and Patton avenues, Thursday through Sunday. Pearson also gets behind the wheel of her bright-blue food truck, Sunny, and takes those sandwiches — funky flavors of ice cream pressed between homemade cookies — to festivals.

Now that ice cream weather is in full swing, Pearson said the truck will make more appearances at local venues, including the West Asheville Tailgate Market, The Lot at 51 Coxe Ave. and area breweries. Pearson has a flair for the whimsical, and her creations include maple-bacon ice cream on cinnamon roll cookies, as well as Highland Mocha Stout ice cream on chocolate cookies with pretzels.

Pearson's enthusiasm for putting twists on classics extends beyond the ice cream sandwich. "The food trucks are a newer thing, but the ice cream truck is old-school, in a way," she said. "So we're trying to do plays on things you might get from an ice cream truck when you were a kid."

Take, for example, her version of the Choco Taco, a dessert created in the '80s when fusion cuisine was still gaining ground. Pearson's version will incorporate a freshly made waffle taco with hand-scooped ice cream, topped with anything from sprinkles to bacon. "Really, the possibilities are endless," she said.